Back to Life, Back to Reality
by dreamsofyesterday1
Summary: Part ten of the 'Robyn' series. The return of an old face sends repurcussions throughout Lazytown and brings humourous consequences when people get used to the new arrival. Rated T for safety in future chapters. Warning:Cliff hanger ending
1. The return of Robbie Rotten

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Disclaimers: I do not own Lazytown or the characters in it. Robyn, Kit, Doctor Cole, Ché and Greta are my own characters.

Part ten of the 'Robyn' series.

"Energy at critical levels! Energy at critical levels! Explosion imminent! Explosion imminent!" The computer in Pixel's new lab exclaimed over the sirens that had started wailing.

Pixel hit his desk in frustration, "damn it!" he yelled before running for the stairs.

Pixel made it out onto the surface before a huge fire ball ripped through the lab and funnelled out of the open entrance. Sportacus was quickly on the scene and was relieved to see Pixel was unharmed. He'd seen the fire ball and had feared the worst.

"What happened?" Sportacus shouted over the din the computer was making, it had grown louder after the fireball struck.

Pixel shrugged, "I'm not sure. Everything with my experiment was going fine and then something made it go crazy. One thing's for sure, the lab's toast. I have to go back in to turn off the noise."

Sportacus shook his head, "Go home. Stephanie is worried. Tell me what button to press and I'll switch it off,"

"It's the red button on the main computer panel. Press it in for three seconds and the sound will stop. Be careful down there." Pixel watched Sportacus enter his lab which had once been Robbie's old lair and when Sportacus vanished from sight he headed for home.

Sportacus covered his ears against the racket that the computer was making and then quickly changing his mind covered his mouth. Smoke filled the room and the noise was nowhere near as dangerous as smoke inhalation. Looking around Sportacus agreed with Pixel's observation that the lab was toast. Wires hung everywhere and sparks flew off gutted pieces of equipment. Small fires burned in different locations around the room. Finding the main computer panel quickly Sportacus pressed the right button and was glad when the noise ceased. It had been so loud it had made his ears ring.

Assessing the small fires that were burning Sportacus reckoned they were small enough to be smothered out and grabbing the thankfully undamaged fire blanket from it's container on the wall put each one out. He was about to leave when he heard a sound which made him jump. It was the sound of someone coughing.

Kit added the finishing touches to living room wall. He and Robyn had moved into to Robbie's old house which had served for some four years as Robyn's childhood home. It had been difficult for Robyn to return as the place held many memories and nothing had been moved from the day that Robbie had died. Kit had commented that it was if time had stood still in the house since Robbie left it and no one disagreed.

Since their becoming engaged Kit and Robyn had decided that they needed to move in somewhere together and the house was it. It had taken some time for Robyn to come round to the idea completely even though it had been her that had suggested it but eventually she pulled through. For the last three weeks Robyn and Kit had been redecorating the house and had all but changed it completely. All of the old furniture had been removed and new furniture put in and all of the rooms were being given a fresh coat of paint.

"How many times are you going to repaint that wall? We must have gone through four colours already." A voice said from behind Kit.

Turning round Kit smiled when he saw Robyn, "Let me think," he began putting a hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "Twenty times, actually, I think this is the last one." Kit took his hand away from his chin and Robyn laughed.

Kit looked at his hand and realised that it was covered in paint. Going over to a mirror he saw that he had a massive print of hand on his chin. He rolled his eyes at his own stupidity and then turned pointing a threatening finger at Robyn who was still laughing.

"You should have told me I had paint on my hand." Kit said in mock anger.

"It was funnier to watch you make an idiot of yourself." Robyn replied still laughing.

Kit opened his eyes and mouth wide in melodramatic shock and then narrowing his eyes evilly shouted, "Come here!"

Robyn laughed at him again and ran away. Kit playfully chased her around the house. 'At least I have my hands back now,' Kit thought to himself after narrowly running into wall and stopping himself with his hands.

Sportacus looked around all of his instincts tuned to their tightest. He couldn't see where the sound was coming from but it sounded close. Spotting something under Pixel's desk Sportacus crouched down and was surprised to see someone under it. It was too dark to see who but whoever they were they were coughing very badly. Gently grabbing the person's leg he pulled them out from under the desk and taking off his cap pressed it to the person's mouth instructing them to breathe through it. He picked them up once the person had done as instructed and he carried them out of the lab.

A small crowd had gathered outside of the entrance to Pixel's lab and everyone gasped when they saw who it was that Sportacus had rescued. Sportacus looked down and nearly dropped the person in shock when he recognised them. It couldn't be possible.

Robyn opened the door when a furious knocking shook it. She was surprised to see Ziggy standing outside looking exhausted.

"Robyn. You have to come quickly! There's something you should see! It's urgent!" Ziggy gasped getting his breath back.

Robyn looked to Kit and then back to Ziggy. Without another word Ziggy ran back the way he had come and was followed by Robyn and Kit. There was something all too familiar with the route they were running and Robyn could sense there was something happening up ahead.

Everyone turned round when they saw Robyn and Kit coming and unreadable emotions crossed their faces. The two seemed extremely confused and everyone knew their confusion would be amplified when they saw who Sportacus had saved. They were all dealing with their own surprise.

Seeing the small crowd and their faces Kit stopped running and asked impatiently, "What's going on then?"

No one answered him and looking at each other made a silent decision and parted down the middle to give the two access to what they'd previously been hiding. Kit stepped up and gasped when he saw the form lying on the ground. He tried to stop Robyn from seeing but it was too late. She'd seen him.

Robyn took in a sharp, startled intake of breath. Her head began to swim and she took a few stiff steps backwards. 'This isn't possible.' She thought through the gathering haze that filled her mind. The people around her shouldn't have been able to see the person lying on the ground but they could and she'd seen him breathing. Blood roared in Robyn's ears as the haze intensified and she started to sink slowly to the ground.

Kit caught Robyn before her fall could propel her all the way to the ground and he laid her down gently. Everyone had taken a step towards him in concern for Robyn and confusion as to what was happening.

"She's fainted," Kit stated out loud.

It was hardly surprising that Robyn had fainted. The person on the ground was none other than Robbie Rotten.


	2. An explanation

He heard a sound permeating his ears. It was a sound he'd not heard in a long time. As his consciousness returned more and more the sound grew louder and more distinct. It was the sound of a clock ticking. He tried to sit up but his body felt like it was made of lead and his muscles ached horribly. He was aware of another presence in the room and tried to speak but no words left his mouth, his throat was drier than an arid desert.

"Lay still please, Mr Rotten. Take things easy." A voice from somewhere near him said. The voice was unfamiliar but it was comforting.

Robbie did as he was bid and fell into a deep sleep akin to the one he'd not long been awoken from.

Doctor Cole left the room that Robbie was sleeping in and made his way down the stairs. His normally non existent temper had been aroused and he wanted answers. Walking into the living room without any of his normal airs and graces he looked at every single person in the room with a piercing gaze.

"I signed that man's death certificate nearly fifteen years ago. That normally means that people are dead. For some strange reason that dead man happens to be breathing, has a pulse and can move. Dead people don't do those things. Tell me what is going on here!" Doctor Cole spoke with a vehemence no one thought him capable of.

Pixel typed something into the computer on his wrist, "The energy that was released from the malfunction must have ripped a hole in another dimension. It must have been enough to rip Robbie from that one into this one."

"That doesn't explain why he's alive." Doctor Cole snapped.

"I'm coming to that." Pixel replied coldly, "The other dimension must have been that which we call death. The energy pulled him from death to this one and revived him. Computer says that he would have to have been in the room at the time but his body is in the cemetery."

Ziggy gulped, "do you think his ghost was in the lab? That is spooky." Ziggy shuddered at the thought of Robbie's ghost running around town for all these years.

"It was his ghost." Kit broke in, the game was up. His secret had to be told. "This will sound a little far fetched but after Robbie's come back from the dead I doubt it'll make today seem less weird."

"Please continue," Doctor Cole urged taking a seat on the floor.

Kit took a deep breath, "On the day of Robyn's eighteenth birthday I sent her to the cemetery because she was upset about her dad and told her to talk to him. I did it because it would make her feel better. What I didn't realise was that she'd literally spoken to him. Apparently she has some kind of sixth sense where she can see and speak to those that are no longer with us, Robbie was one.

She didn't tell me what happened straight away; I just put her good spirits down to a good long think.

When I left town I was confronted by Robbie. He said he'd used a trick a friend of his had used quite regularly to make himself visible and audible to normal people."

"Like Detective Miller," the Mayor interrupted recalling their ghostly visitor who had spear headed Robyn's mountain rescue.

"Who?" Kit asked but pressed on before he could be disrupted again, "Robbie persuaded me to return. Ever since then he and Robyn have seen each other and spoken with each other quite a lot. I've seen Robbie myself a couple of times."

"Why didn't you tell anyone any of this?" Sportacus asked wounded by Robyn's secrecy.

Kit smiled wryly, "because you'd think we were mad and Robbie didn't want the publicity. I'm sorry about our keeping this from you but it had to be done."

Doctor Cole piped in, "all of this irrelevant now anyway. We have one man back from the dead which in my eyes is a medical marvel. This however must be kept in the utmost secrecy. The only reason that I haven't had him airlifted to the hospital, which is where he should ideally be, is because we could all end up being banged up in the Crazytown safe house."

"How so?" Stingy asked a little upset that he couldn't earn a pretty penny by turning the story into the newspapers.

Doctor Cole looked at Stingy in a manner which banished any notion of bringing the papers into the picture. "Because if he was to be admitted into any hospital in this area a little red sign would flash up saying, 'deceased'. I'm sure you're well aware of the fact that dead people don't need to be treated in hospitals. All of what has been said before now would be a pretty poor excuse should someone question us."

Everyone nodded. They all agreed that they had to keep Robbie's revival a secret. It would be hard and they were still reeling from their shock at seeing him after all this time. Each of them could understand Kit's and Robyn's reasons for keeping quiet about Robbie before this happened, their reaction would have been just the same.

"How is Robbie?" Sportacus asked breaking the silence that had descended.

Doctor Cole looked up, "As well as can be expected. He inhaled a tremendous amount of smoke and will have a very nasty cough for a few weeks. He'll need to be kept on portable oxygen for some time and the mask mustn't be taken off for longer than is needed to take a sip of a drink or a bite of food. There isn't much more that I can suggest except close monitoring of his vital signs. I can give you the equipment you need to do this properly and can claim I lost it when my bag is inspected. I will return in a few days to see how things are going and will prescribe the necessary medications according to his progress."

This information was absorbed by everyone and they made mental notes to remember what had been said.

"As an after thought," Doctor Cole began and took a pen and paper from his pocket, "should his condition worsen or his symptoms alarm you call me on my private number. Before I go I need to get that equipment and show you how to use it."

Doctor Cole got up and left the room. He returned a few minutes later and smiled when he saw that Robyn had joined the group. Automatically he checked her vital signs and declared that she had no adverse affects from her faint. After doing this he removed a strange looking apparatus from a bag and explained what it was and how it worked.

"This beast is called a 'Dynamap'. It can monitor blood pressure, pulse and the amount of oxygenated red blood cells in the body. It works as a touch screen and if you want to do all three things press 'all obs'. I'm sure you all know where the blood pressure cuff goes and the little probe can be put on the finger or the ear, it's what monitors the oxygen count. Once it's done everything it's been asked to do you can print out the readings. An alarm will go off if anything is out of balance with what we call 'human normal'. Everyone with me so far?" Doctor Cole had explained the machine as thoroughly as he could.

Everyone nodded. They'd learn how to use the machine by practicing. Using this new toy would be a daunting prospect for some but others (such as Pixel) really wanted to give it try.

Satisfied that he'd been understood Doctor Cole took his leave. Taking the Doctor's example everyone except Sportacus, Kit and Robyn left the house. The three needed to be left alone to clear the air. Sportacus had been hurt by the deceit that the other two had conjured up. None of them had thought Robyn capable of such a thing and all of them put it down to a hidden nature. Doctor Cole was thanked for his service.

Doctor Cole had almost reacted the same way as Robyn when he'd been greeted with Robbie. When they had telephoned the clinic he had been told that Robyn had fainted which was true but he'd not been informed of a second patient until he'd arrived. His knees had buckled with the shock of seeing the man he'd declared dead that many years before. His nerves had quickly recovered themselves however when he noticed the condition his patient was in. Both of his patients had been carried back to Kit's and Robyn's house and lain in separate bedrooms.

On their way back home Pixel stopped walking causing Stephanie to stop walking too.

"What's up?" She questioned seeing Pixel's befuddled expression.

"I'm just trying to figure out how such a small experiment could go so wrong. How could a preliminary test of a self recharging baby monitor cause so much trouble?"

The question was left hanging in the air. There was no answer to that.


	3. Where's Skip?

Two days had passed and Robbie was improving steadily. He could now sit up, move a little and talk. The cough he had acquired through his smoke inhalation had eased slightly and was aggravated by any stresses. Doctor Cole had yet to return and would do so within two days. Several people had opted to keep watch over Robbie not only to monitor him but keep him company.

Robyn and Sportacus had sorted out their differences over her having kept her contact with Robbie's ghost a secret. Kit himself had also been held to account and had even been blamed for leading Robyn into it. Robyn had defended herself and Kit with the argument that if they had said nothing, which they did, no one had been lied to. Had they offered some sort of excuse in the case of Robyn's failed appetite that would have been a lie but as they had said nothing no harm had been done. For the sake of both Robbie and Robyn Kit had left out the part about Robbie being instrumental in Robyn's blindness and subsequent recovery. It would have caused more trouble than it was worth had any of them said anything.

Everyone had questioned mortality and whether death was really the end. They had living proof that death could be arrested and life given back to a spirit but it was something none of them chose to look into too deeply. Some posed questions to Robbie as to what death was like but he resolutely refused to answer. All he would say was that death was different for everyone and everything you do in life is written down in testament to aid judgement in death. The judgement was posed whether or not you would have an easy time in eternity or would be punished. Some, like Robbie, suffered both.

Kit had spent quite a lot of time with Robbie trying to get to know the man and both of them found they quite liked each other. Having never had a father figure in his life Kit had often felt compelled to find one and had done so in Robbie. Both men laughed and joked together as if they'd known each other for years and it was a good omen in terms of Kit's and Robyn's growing relationship. Robbie had no qualms about his daughter's choice in partner as long as he was kept well informed.

It had been a while since anyone had seen Skip and Kit along with Stingy tried to find him. Trixie helped out as well when neither man had had any luck finding the little Terrier. All of them met in a designated spot two hours after the search had recommenced to let each other know of progress.

"I hate it when he does this. He disappears then comes back and then disappears again. I'd ask Robyn to let Erin take a little look for him but after they met the last time I'm not so sure." Kit continued to look about as he spoke.

Trixie stopped looking when she thought of something, "You don't think those two massive dogs got him? The ones with the Shadows."

"Snatch and Cuddles? Nah, they wouldn't go after him. He's too small for them to have bothered with. I should expect he's in a huff with me because I've not moved on; he tends to rule the roost in that aspect. There might be a way to lure him out though."

"How?" Stingy asked getting impatient with their lack of progress.

"My bag, he's obsessed with the thing. Thinks he owns it. If I leave it alone somewhere he'll come out and get it." Kit explained.

"I hope you're right." Trixie replied not sounding too hopeful.

Kit smiled and reassured them both that this was something Skip did all the time and he'd turn up eventually. If the bag trick didn't work then he'd get Robyn to loose Erin. With a literal bird's eye view Erin was bound to spot Skip, a close eye would have to kept on her in case she found him and tried to make him lunch again.

Robyn was busying herself in her room when she heard Robbie cry out. She ran into his room to see what the matter was. Entering the room she saw Robbie sitting bolt upright in bed and breathing heavily. Rushing to his side she tried to comfort him. Ten minutes passed before Robbie was calm enough to control his breathing and lie down again.

"I had a bad dream," He explained seeing how worried Robyn was about him.

"About Her?" The reply was more of a statement than a question.

Robbie nodded. He'd noticed some many years ago that Robyn never mentioned her mother's name. Robyn had never asked after her mother even as a child. The only time that Robyn had ever mentioned anything about Lily was when she'd asked how Robbie had died. She'd also told Kit what she knew about both her parent's death and hadn't hidden any of the gory details.

"Do you get them often?" Robyn asked again breaking into Robbie's reverie.

"Sometimes. It varies. The dreams vary too but they all have her in."

"She frightens you."

Robbie nodded. "She's never contacted you has she? Like I did?"

When Robyn looked away slightly Robbie knew the answer and anger sparked in him. As far as he was concerned Lily could do what she liked to him but what she did to Robyn was another story.

"What did she say?" Robbie asked trying not to make his anger audible in his voice.

Robyn directed a level glance at Robbie, "Horrid things. She only came once. I was alone at the time and it was when I was blind."

"Tell me what they were," Robbie said holding Robyn's hand.

Robyn wrenched her hand away and stood up, "I won't." was all she said before leaving the room.

Sportacus was coming down the hallway when Robyn passed him heading towards the stairs. She looked upset and he tried to stop her but Robyn just pulled herself from his grasp. Confused Sportacus headed for Robbie's room just in case he knew what was wrong with Robyn.

"What's up with Robyn?" Sportacus asked entering the room.

Robbie shrugged rather concerned by Robyn's reaction. He'd not expected it all.

"She mentioned something about Lily making an appearance to her and speaking to her the way that Lily does. When I asked her what Lily said to her she walked out. I thought she would have told me." Robbie tried to hide how bad he was feeling about it but Sportacus knew him too well to be fooled.

"I would have thought so too. Maybe she's told or will tell Kit." Sportacus suggested.

"Tell Kit what?" Kit walked in the room looking less than his happy self.

Robbie explained to Kit what happened so far in terms of what Robyn had said and asked if Robyn had mentioned anything to him.

Kit frowned, "not a word. The only thing I know about Lily is what she did to you and what happened to her. Nothing more has been said about her. If Robyn's told none of us three and Ziggy neither than what Lily said to her must have been bad. I can ask Ziggy later if he's heard anything about it."

Sportacus and Robbie nodded. If Robyn hadn't confided in Ziggy about what Lily had said to her then there was a problem.


	4. The truth comes out

"Ziggy!" Kit called running up to the candy enthusiast just as he'd left his house.

Ziggy stopped in his tracks when he heard Kit call his name. He turned round and smiled at kit but his smile soon faded when he saw the expression on Kit's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked when Kit had come to a stop next to him.

Kit caught his breath, "Robyn hasn't spoken to you lately has she?"

"About what?"

"Lily. Apparently Robyn and her had words or rather Lily had words with Robyn and said some nasty stuff. The problem is that we don't know what was said, she's not told anyone. Me, Robbie and Sportacus are clueless and I thought she might have said something to you." Kit explained.

Ziggy shook his head, "She said something about Lily but wouldn't say anymore than that she'd spoken to her. I tried to get the rest out of her but she refused."

"Damn," Kit swore in frustration. "I'll have to find her and see what I can get out of her not that it'll be much if anything. I tell you, if I ever meet this Lily I'd be glad to give her a piece of my mind."

Ziggy shuddered, "I'd advise against that whether she's alive or dead."

Kit nodded and then ran off in search of Robyn.

Robyn sat in her garden and had Skip with her. She'd found the cheeky little dog trying to dig up a patch of her garden and had picked him up to stop him from causing further mischief. Skip had ceased his struggles after a few strong words from Robyn and had licked her face by way of apology.

As soon as Kit had entered the garden Skip jumped off of Robyn's lap and made a 'bee line' for his master. Kit grabbed the small dog and gave him a hug before setting the Terrier back on his feet and ordering him to find his bag. Skip barked and then ran off. Kit couldn't help but laugh every time he saw Skip run, the dog's back leg would hover in the air and the two front legs would do all the work. It was a trick the dog had taught himself and required the perfect balance.

Once Skip had gone Kit turned to Robyn and saw her walking over to him. He held out his arms and Robyn hugged him tightly. She knew why he was there, she'd wondered how long it would take him to speak to the others and then come to find her.

"Talk to me," was all Kit said. He felt Robyn shake her head against his shoulder. "Why not?" He asked.

"They're not words I can repeat."

"Try." Kit pressed.

Robyn broke away from the hug, "I can't. I can't say them."

"Please Robyn. If Sportacus or Robbie asks what was said I can tell them. You only have to tell me." Kit reasoned looking deeply into Robyn's blue eyes.

Sighing Robyn told Kit what Lily had said to her. Kit was sickened by what he heard. He could tell why Robyn had refused to say anything to anyone. Hugging Robyn and giving her a kiss he told Robyn that it was ok for her to come home when she was ready. He promised to speak to Sportacus and her dad about what had been said.

Sportacus and Robbie were still talking when Kit came back. The younger man looked agitated and both asked what was wrong.

"She told me." Kit began. "I don't know if I should repeat what Lily said and I can understand why Robyn refused to tell us. Let's just say some of the accusations and threats Lily made weren't pretty."

"Accusations?" Robbie and Sportacus asked simultaneously.

"Yes. Accusations which included Sportacus strangling his own sister half to death,"

Sportacus looked down.

"They were all true weren't they?" Kit knew he'd interpreted Sportacus' reaction properly.

Sportacus could only nod.

After this little revelation Kit made Robbie and Sportacus confess to all of the accusations. When every single one was deemed as true Kit struggled to take it all in. He'd not known of Robbie's past life as a villain which had come to an end after Lily's attack on him. Robyn hadn't known either. Kit himself felt angry and disappointed with both of them but more so with Sportacus. He didn't know why Sportacus had never told Robyn the full story about her dad. Yes it wasn't a pretty picture but at least she'd have known and found out in a much nicer way than the ravings of her lunatic mother.

"You have to tell her what you told me." Kit stated. "It will hurt her like hell but she has to know. The doubt she's feeling is driving her mad. Tell her the truth before I do."

Sportacus was about to say something but caught sight of a flash of lilac through the crack of the semi shut door. Looking at Robbie in horror he ran after Robyn knowing that she'd heard everything.

Robyn was almost at the front door when Sportacus caught up with her. He blocked her way when she tried to get out and refused to budge. On extremely rare occasions Robyn would have fits of temper almost as bad as Lily's and had to be restrained to prevent her doing harm to herself. Thankfully Robyn would never harm anyone intentionally when she had these turns and they were extremely rare. Robyn was having one of these fits now and Sportacus removed his attention from the door to calming Robyn down. He held her arms and tried to pull her to a nearby chair but she resisted.

Kit, hearing the commotion that was going on downstairs left Robbie's room to see what was going on. When Sportacus noticed him standing at the top of the stairs watching in extreme confusion what was going on called to Kit to help. Kit didn't respond and Sportacus explained what was happening. Remembering what Sportacus had said to him some time after he'd confessed his love to Robyn about these tantrums Kit came to the rescue. He'd never seen Robyn like this even if he knew they could happen and was scared.

After a few minutes Sportacus and Kit managed to get Robyn into a chair and eventually managed to quiet the girl. Dealing with Robyn when she had a fit of temper was exhausting work and it was never certain how long it would take to bring her out of them. They'd started happening about a year after Robbie's death. The first two years had been the worst with a fit of temper happening nearly every other day. Gradually they'd begun to ease off and after a few more years never seemed to happen at all. A child psychologist had been brought in but could find no concrete cause for them. They'd just been put down to trauma and the case had never been reopened.

Robbie strained his ears to detect any sounds coming from downstairs. He could hear nothing and guessed that Robyn had been successfully calmed. He'd witnessed one or two of her fits when he'd been a ghost and had trembled at the sheer power of them. Robyn would scream at the top of her lungs and struggle against whoever was restraining her. He remembered a time when someone had failed to restrain her and Robyn had banged her head repeatedly against a wall. When Robyn awoke from these fits she'd remember nothing of them and would be her normal self.

The sound of someone knocking on the front door and voices downstairs reached Robbie's ears and broke his reverie. Even though the words were indistinct he could recognise Stephanie's and Pixel's voices. He guessed they must have heard the commotion too.

An hour later Robyn stepped into her father's bedroom and closed the door behind her. They had to talk.


	5. A Doctor comes to call

"Do you think everything's ok over at Robyn's house? Sportacus seemed a little tense." Pixel commented whilst making dinner.

"I don't know. There has to be something going on. Robyn doesn't have those fits for nothing and it's been a long time since the last one. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Stephanie replied.

Pixel nodded, "I guess so. I'd rather know sooner rather than later though."

As if someone had heard Pixel utter the words there came a knock at the door. Stephanie opened it to see Sportacus standing there, he looked a lot calmer than he had done when they'd seen him last.

"I know you're doing dinner but can I come in quickly?" Sportacus asked.

Stephanie nodded and let Sportacus pass. There was no need to offer Sportacus a seat as he very rarely accepted.

Looking at both Pixel and Stephanie Sportacus spoke, "I know you're concerned about what happened earlier. I'd rather not go into the whys and wherefores but let's just say there was a little incident. Everything is sorted now, luckily."

"Is everyone ok?" Stephanie asked a little disappointed with Sportacus' explanation.

"They are now. Robyn's calm and the air has been cleared. I know you want to know more but I'm not at liberty to say any more." Sportacus replied.

Pixel nodded and then broke in, "Ziggy said something about Robyn and Lily having words a while back. That wouldn't have anything to do with it would it?"

Sportacus looked at Pixel blankly. He'd thought that Pixel and Stephanie were the only two he'd have to talk to. Kit had mentioned speaking to Ziggy and now Sportacus had another person to explain to. Right now he decided he'd have to tell Pixel and Stephanie everything.

When Sportacus had finished telling Pixel and Stephanie everything they were both shocked. They were ashamed that they too had taken part in hiding Robbie's past from Robyn as much as everyone else had. It was no wonder that Robyn had had one of her fits. Thankfully after holding a long conference with Robbie and then Sportacus Robyn had come to understand their reasons for the deception. Kit had also understood and accepted that Robbie had turned his life around for the sake of his daughter. This revelation had made him admire Robbie even more.

Once he'd left Pixel's house Sportacus went to find Ziggy and wasn't surprised to see both Stingy and Trixie with him. Unlike Pixel and Stephanie they'd been expecting Sportacus or Kit to come and speak to them. Sportacus explained what had happened as he had done with Pixel and Stephanie and the reactions were the same. Stingy had made the comment that even though Lily was dead she could still cause trouble. It was starting to seem like death was merely an inconvenience these days rather than a permanent state.

Doctor Cole arrived bright and early the next morning to check on his patient. Everyone had to admit that the man's timing was impeccable; he'd arrived just as everyone had eaten their breakfast. Making a point to speak to Robyn to see how her epilepsy was going and how she was responding to the medication he'd put her on Doctor Cole headed up the stairs.

Knocking on the door Doctor Cole entered and saw Robyn showing Robbie something in a large book. Noticing their guest Robyn shut the book and left the room after giving her father a kiss on the cheek.

"She's a wonderful girl," Doctor Cole commented walking further into the room.

Robbie nodded, "she is."

Laying his rather condensed bag on the night stand Doctor Cole pulled out his stethoscope and listened to Robbie's chest and back.

"That sounds a lot clearer than it did the last time I was here, the oxygen is obviously working." Doctor Cole stated and then looked through the small bundle of printed of read outs from the 'Dynamap'. "These look promising as well. Well done with doing one before I came, I'm impressed. You seem to be improving so well that I might even suspend your bed rest and let you walk around a little."

Robbie smiled. As strange as it sounded he couldn't stand bed rest. Orange fuzzy chair rest was more his thing. Being downstairs would give him a welcome change of scenery.

"How much is a little?" Robbie asked testing the boundaries a little.

Doctor Cole looked up from the papers he was still studying, "Downstairs is a little. As long as you keep your oxygen with you everything should be ok. I'm going to lower the amount of oxygen you're on and change the mask for what we call 'nasal specs'. These go in your nose and are less comfortable than the mask but more practical as you can eat with them in. Shall we try to get you downstairs now?"

Robbie nodded. Doctor Cole called Kit to give him a hand as he didn't know how Robbie would fair after not being on his feet for some time. It took less time than either man had imagined getting Robbie downstairs. After a few experimental laps of the bedroom Doctor Cole was satisfied that Robbie was able to go downstairs which was welcome news to all.

When he couldn't see his orange chair Robbie looked a little surprised. Kit quickly explained that they hadn't been expecting him back which had made Robbie chuckle a little. Instead of the orange chairs there were brown leather two and one piece suites and upon sitting on one of the chairs Robbie's favourite changed. He sank into the soft leather and felt wondrously comfortable.

"Hey Doc," Kit began looking at Doctor Cole, "Have you ever heard of the man that had to have his windpipe diverted to his anus because his throat was severely damaged and his anus was the only muscle that had access to the outside?"

Doctor Cole tried to think, "No I can't say I have. If his windpipe has been redirected to his anus what does he do when he goes to the toilet?"

Kit kept a remarkably straight face as he delivered the punch line, "He has to hold his breath."

Doctor Cole got the joke and laughed as did Kit and Robbie. Robyn just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"You and your stories." She said containing her own laughter.

Kit laughed, he liked his stories and so did everyone else. He had hundreds and the trick was determining which stories were true and which weren't.

Calming down and clearing his throat Doctor Cole looked to Robyn, "Might I speak you in private? It's just a small matter."

Robyn seemed unfazed by the request. She motioned for the Doctor to follow her outside in the garden. Kit and Robbie were the only ones that were a little apprehensive.

"How's the epilepsy?" Doctor Cole asked closer the back door behind him.

Robyn thought for a little while, "same as always."

Doctor Cole nodded, "How are you faring with the course of medication I put you on? Any side affects?"

"Some. They make me feel nauseous sometimes and other times I feel dizzy. I also find that when I have a seizure it takes longer for me to wake up."

"I'll have to prescribe another course. There are hundreds of different drugs for epilepsy it's just finding the right combination. As far as I recall you have a day left on the ones you have already, come to see me tomorrow and we'll run a blood test to see what to do next." Doctor Cole suggested.

"Thank you, Doctor."

"You're very welcome. I'll be off now; I can make my own way out. For your appointment we'll say two in the afternoon."

Robyn nodded and Doctor Cole left.

Turning round to go back into the house Robyn heard something and looked up. A rather familiar looking airship flew over the house and parked itself on the edge of town. It was so large it cast a shadow over half of the town.


	6. Mischief

Seeing the shadow and the airship everyone left their houses and gathered round underneath it. They hadn't expected to see it back so soon nor the occupants inside it. It had been two months since Ché had left and he'd mentioned returning a year later, he was early.

The huge ladder fell from the airship and this time it wasn't Ché who climbed down it but someone else, a woman. This woman looked to be of a very similar height to Ché and surprisingly a similar muscle tone. When the woman reached the ground Kit nudged Robyn and stepped forward.

"Hey, Ché! Nice boobs. You might want to lose the skirt and the make up though, they do you no favours." Kit called.

Everyone had to suppress their laughter after this comment was made.

The woman looked extremely disgruntled and directed a withering gaze at Kit. She lifted him up by the shoulders and hissed, "I'm Greta."

"Greta put him down." Ché's stern voice ordered from above. He was rapidly climbing down the ladder.

"You must be Kit. I've been told about you." Greta said ignoring Ché's order.

Kit shook his head, "I'm not Kit. I'm Robyn. I have nice boobs too. You want to see them?"

Everyone laughed at this including Greta. Robyn blushed and rolled her eyes. Even though he was laughing Sportacus felt a little surprised about Kit's comment and didn't know whether it meant something more than he'd implied. He decided he'd have to speak to the two alone again.

Greta placed Kit back on his feet and looked around her. "Ever since Ché came back home all he's ever talked about is this place. That's why we're here, I wanted to see for myself the town he's fallen in love with. He doesn't do it justice."

Mayor Meanswell stepped forward glad that his town had been so highly praised, "I'm the Mayor of Lazytown. It's an honour to have you here. I apologise for Kit."

Greta waved her hand, "no need. No harm done." The turning to Kit she asked, "Being a clown is all very well and good but have you ever thought of being a mime?"

The crowd chuckled at Greta's question.

Kit smiled, "I can mime too."

Taking a few steps away from the crowd so he had enough room Kit did a flawless rendition of the well known mime act, 'a man stuck in a box'. He had all the right moves and added excellent facial expressions. Once Kit had done he was applauded and he took a bow.

When Robbie woke up from his doze he realised the house was empty. Feeling something in his hand he opened it to find a small note written in Robyn's eloquent handwriting.

'We'll be back in twenty minutes maximum. Ché's come back and we've just gone to meet him. Back soon. Robyn x'

Kit and Robyn returned just as Robbie had finished reading. They were having an extremely playful argument and there were several references to 'nice boobs'. Both were so absorbed in their argument that they didn't notice that Robbie was awake and listening intently to what was being said. Sportacus followed the two in the house and they were no more aware of his presence then they were of Robbie's. Smirking Robbie looked at Sportacus and shrugged. Deciding that enough was enough for now Sportacus cleared his throat and the argument desisted both participants jumping in surprise. Both Robyn and Kit looked a little embarrassed and smiled at both Robbie and Sportacus sweetly.

"Where did all this talk of nice boobs come from?" Sportacus asked seemingly guessing the answer.

"China." Kit answered plainly keeping his usual straight face.

Sportacus shook his head and tried to bury an impulse to chuckle. Calming down he asked again.

Looking at Robyn and knowing the game was up Kit replied, "It might have had something to do with the night we spent together that time. Robyn came out of the shower and her towel fell off. Accidents happen."

Robbie raised both eyebrows, "_accidents_? I knew you too had to be doing _something_ up there."

"Busted." Was all Robyn could say.

Kit broke in before anyone could say anything else, "me looking when the towel came off was accidental. Had I known she was going to do it I'd have stopped her but she didn't tell me so I looked. She's seen me naked hundreds of times anyway."

Robbie opened his eyes wide. He'd not been aware of this before.

"I've just shot myself in the foot haven't I? I don't wear underwear in bed. I've just done it again." Kit was pretty much on the verge of hitting his head against a wall to shut himself up.

Trying to divert everyone's attention from his numerous faux pas Kit suddenly did his own interpretation of a tap dance. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said he was a master at diversions. Robbie and Sportacus couldn't help but laugh at the younger man's attempt at getting out of trouble. Not only did Kit have a way with words but he also had a way with actions too.

"What are we going to do with you two?" Robbie asked rolling his eyes. He was less upset than he thought he'd be with Kit and Robyn's antics.

"I think we can let them off of the hook this time." Sportacus replied with his arms crossed, "You've been good lately so I think we can overlook this. Just as long as you stay good until after you're married."

Sportacus looked at Robbie to see his thoughts on this and Robbie nodded agreeing.

Robyn and Kit looked at each other in surprise; they'd not expected Robbie and Sportacus to be so lenient. Deciding to leave Robbie and Sportacus to talk Robyn suggested she and Kit go to the flower garden. Kit agreed taking the hint and began to walk with Robyn. Before leaving the house Kit couldn't resist playing a trick on Sportacus and pinched his bum. Kit quickly ran off laughing.

It took a few seconds for what Kit had done to sink in and when it did he gave chase after the phantom pincher. Without any trouble at all Sportacus caught up with Kit and tackled him to the ground. Kit was still laughing when Sportacus turned him over and it didn't seem like Kit would stop laughing any time soon. Kit's laughter was infectious and Sportacus started laughing as well.

Eventually Kit stopped laughing and said, "I didn't know you felt this way about me Sportacus."

Sportacus realised he was practically sitting on top of Kit and got up rapidly. He rolled his eyes and offered Kit a hand up. Just before Kit took the hand Sportacus lifted it out of Kit's reach and smiled. Kit grimaced in mock disappointment and made to help himself up. Making sure Sportacus' attention was fixed on watching him get up Kit got one of Sportacus' legs in a leg lock and Sportacus fell over. Sportacus fell to the ground with a bump and expertly shifting himself got Kit in a loose head lock.

A play fight had started.


	7. Play fighting

Not one to overlook a play fight Ché rushed over to join in. He'd play fought with all of his sons and grandsons and even some of his daughters. When it came to play fights and rough housing Ché was a big kid at heart and couldn't resist participating. Hearing something resembling a war cry both Kit and Sportacus paused in their tussle to see Ché running towards them. Both opened their eyes wide and almost screamed when Ché leapt from the ground and landed squarely on top of them. When Ché landed on the two everyone winced, that had to hurt.

Seeing that Sportacus and Kit were vastly outnumbered by Ché Ziggy yelled, "Everyone against Ché!" and ran to join the pile.

Stingy, Pixel and Trixie accepted the invitation and everyone piled on top of Ché who was still on top of Sportacus and Kit. Stephanie longed to join in but it was unfeasible in her condition so all she could do was watch.

Knowing the tables had turned Ché got up and tried to shake off the four people hanging onto him. Deciding to work together for once Sportacus and Kit both hung onto one each of Ché's legs and tried to pull him to the ground. Ché was not to be defeated by six people and was having the time of his life. Eventually the weight of six people caught up with him and he stumbled. Seeing their chance Kit and Sportacus increased their efforts and Ché started to fall.

"Timber!" Kit called as Ché fell and hit the ground.

Stingy, Trixie, Pixel, Kit, Sportacus and Ziggy started cheering when they knew they'd been victorious. Ché was left disgraced but swore he'd live to fight another day and he would win. Kit accepted the challenge and declared that a tournament of events should be held with everyone against Ché and Sportacus. It was to be called, 'heroes against normals'. Ché argued and said it should be called 'heroes against zeros'. After much deliberation 'heroes against normals' was agreed upon. The Mayor joined and said that the winning team would get a trophy. He also suggested that he, Bessie, Robbie and Stephanie decide upon which events would be in the tournament and everyone agreed.

"What about Greta?" Ziggy asked remembering the extra person.

"I'll be the first aider. If you're all going to do something like this we'll need one, people are going to get hurt." Greta replied.

With everything agreed everyone went back to their respective homes for lunch. Sportacus joined Kit making the excuse that he didn't want to eat alone. Strangely neither Kit nor Sportacus had been hurt by Ché landing on them.

"Have fun?" Robyn asked raising an eyebrow when the two men returned. She and Robbie had been watching the whole thing.

Sportacus and Kit smiled and nodded. Taking down Ché together had been fun and perhaps even a 'male bonding session'.

"Then you do realise you've invited the enemy into the house?"

Kit looked confused for a second and then remembered what he'd said about the competition. He looked to Sportacus and frowned melodramatically.

"Out!" Kit stated pointing at the door.

Sportacus tried to pull off a puppy dog expression that would change Kit's mind but failed miserably. Waving goodbye he faked a sad expression and walked out of the door sniffing. He could be heard outside making fake sobbing sounds and after a few minutes walked off. His plan hadn't worked. Instead of making his way to his airship Sportacus diverted and climbed up the ladder to Ché's, they had strategies to work out.

Once they'd had lunch Robbie and Kit spoke of the tournament. Robbie had already come up with some ideas for events but wouldn't share them as it would give the normal team an unfair advantage. Kit had tried his best to squeeze the information out of Robbie but he didn't prevail.

"Am I in this little tournament?" Robyn asked.

Kit shook his head, "nope."

Robyn frowned, "why not?"

"Because Princess, you're a girl."

"So is Trixie."

Kit sighed, "Trixie is more of a tom boy than a girl. Besides, it'll be rough out there and you could get hurt."

"I agree," Robbie joined. "If Ché's going to jump all over everyone there are going to be some injuries. I can ask Greta if she needs any help with first aid. Deal?"

Robyn shrugged, "I suppose. At least I'll be a little closer to the action."

Later that afternoon Stephanie, Bessie and the Mayor congregated at Robbie's house to discuss the tournament. Kit had gone to meet up with the team and Robyn had gone to speak with Greta about helping out. It had been decided that the tournament would take part in three days giving everyone enough time to prepare. The events would be announced the day of the tournament to prevent cheating on either side.

As for the events there would be six. These were to be: a tug of war, discus throwing, relay race, sack race, arm wrestling and a game of capture the flag. Each team could nominate one person to take part in the arm wrestling, discus throwing, sack race and relay race. The game of capture the flag would be a nice finisher for the day and was the event most likely to be bloody. The tug of war would prove interesting as would the arm wrestling.

The event planning committee would also serve as judges for the tournament. They had agreed that everyone should be given a medal for their efforts. There was a great deal of argument over who would win. From one point of view it looked like the heroes were outnumbered five to two and from the other it looked like the normals would be pounded. All they could agree on was the fact that it would be very exciting to wait for the outcome.

Ché had managed to squeeze himself into Sportacus' airship and had absolutely no idea how he'd get out again. Greta had refused to budge from her seat when Sportacus had suggested she leave so he and Ché could talk over plans so they had to change tack and move. When Ché had started to climb the ladder the airship had been pulled down a little under his weight. The platform had resisted when Sportacus had asked it to go up to take Ché into the airship. When it had eventually complied Ché got stuck in the hole, he was too big to fit. He'd managed to pull himself out of the hole and had banged his head on the ceiling so he wasn't very happy.

"There is something wrong with that Kit," Ché began. "He has no sense of danger at all."

Sportacus disagreed, "he does. I think he gets himself in trouble because he likes to get himself out of it again. Why else would he pinch my bottom?"

Ché looked at Sportacus and laughed. He couldn't answer that.


	8. A new garden

Doctor Cole removed the syringe with the blood sample in deftly and placed a small ball of cotton wool over the needle prick site. He smiled at his patient and his patient returned the smile.

"You have one of two options to choose from. As we have a lab here I can get the results in two hours so you can either stay here or go home and come back. Doctor Cole suggested.

Robyn looked a little puzzled, "how could I stay here for two hours? There's nothing I can do."

"On the contrary. When I was returning here from town I passed a rather interesting looking corner of town which was full of flowers and it was impressive. I believe that to be your garden."

"It is."

Doctor Cole smiled, "The clinic wishes to make the exterior almost as nice as the interior and a garden would suffice marvellously. I told the director of the clinic of your garden, he visited it as well and was just as impressed as me. He wants you to design and supervise the construction, planting and care of a garden."

Robyn was speechless. This was a tremendous offer and not something she thought herself capable of. Thinking more about it and the challenge it would provide Robyn accepted the offer.

"I thought you'd like it. Let me drop these blood samples at the lab and I'll take you to the director's office. Wait for me in the waiting area." Doctor Cole stood up and let his patient out before he exited the room.

Before sitting down in the waiting area Robyn thought it would be a good idea to call home and let everyone know of the delay. She went over to the payphones on the far side of the waiting area and dialled the number. When she finished the call she was smiling, Robbie had been ecstatic at the news of Robyn being asked to help the clinic design a garden. His voice had been filled with pride.

Doctor Cole found Robyn by the pay phones and led her down a corridor near by. At the end of the corridor was a door marked 'Director'. Robyn knocked on the door and entered when she instructed to.

Robbie had never felt more proud of Robyn. The news she had told him was excellent and he couldn't wait to share it. Sportacus and Kit would be just as proud as he was. Robyn was an accomplished gardener and there was proof of her skill in the garden itself. The hybrid seeds that Bessie had gotten Robyn for her birthday had already started to grow and were flourishing.

Thinking of Sportacus Robbie realised that Sportacus would heading back to Crazytown within the next five minutes to collect Robyn from the clinic. He was at a loss as to what to do he wasn't allowed to leave the house and Kit was off somewhere practicing some tricks. A knock at the door provided Robbie with the answer he needed.

"Come in," he called.

Ziggy walked into the house and smiled when he saw Robbie, "Is Robyn back yet?"

"No she isn't. In fact there's something you can do for me. Robyn's being held up at the clinic waiting for her blood test results and I need to tell Sportacus not to pick her up yet. Can you run over and send a letter to him for me?"

Ziggy nodded and ran off to do as he had been asked too. Instead of Ziggy returning Sportacus came back.

"I got the letter Ziggy sent me. What's going on at the clinic?" Sportacus asked. He'd intended on bringing Robyn home and then taking her back to the results later.

"She's been asked to design, supervise, plant and care for a new garden the clinic is putting in. Doctor Cole saw Robyn's garden and was very impressed, he told the director about it and the director looked at it. He was so impressed he's asked for Robyn to do a garden for them."

Sportacus smiled widely, "that's great news! Robyn must be excited."

"She sounded it. I'm very proud of her."

"Me too."

Robbie looked at Sportacus with an unreadable emotion in his eyes, "You've done a superb job with Robyn. Better than I ever could have done had I the chance to try. I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for her."

"You brought her up for four years. Those were the starting blocks of her life and in those four years you worked wonders. For a man that didn't even like kids you did an outstanding job too."

Robbie chuckled, "I still remember threatening to eat her if she didn't go away. Goes to show how little I knew about babies or kids at the time. You know the moment I picked her up she stopped crying, when that happened something inside me made me smile. I didn't know what it was until much later."

"What was it?"

"Love."

Sportacus smiled. "It was probably a strange feeling for you at the time."

Robbie nodded, "It was. Never having known love myself I didn't know what it felt like. I'd thought myself incapable of feeling love until I met her. She changed me in more ways than I could ever know."

"The innocence of childhood. The most powerful thing in the world."

"It couldn't stop Lily. If you hadn't have stopped her Robyn would be dead now. I've no doubt that that's what Lily intended to do after killing me."

Sportacus shook his head, "maybe it did stop Lily. Remember she made you think she'd dropped Robyn? She caught her before Robyn hit the ground. I've turned it over and over in my head for years; it's not something Lily would have done. She let Robyn live. She'd had plenty of opportunity to kill her. Why leave her with you?"

"I don't know. You're not the only that's been thinking about it. Perhaps not even Lily can kill a baby. As sick as she was even Lily had her limits." Robbie thought out loud.

Sportacus studied Robbie. The man hadn't changed at all since the day he died. He could still the faint scars on Robbie's cheek from when Lily had scratched him. His made him think back to the scars he'd seen on Robbie's back and he wondered if they were still there. What Robbie had gone through as child still sickened him and he still couldn't bear to think what would have happened to Robyn had she been taken to the orphanage.

"I'm sorry," Sportacus said suddenly.

Robbie frowned, "whatever for?"

"When Mr Snail took Robyn away I failed you. You asked me to look after her and not let them take her away but I did. If Mr Snail's car hadn't crashed Robyn would have been brought up in the orphanage."

"You didn't fail me. You tried to stop him, had she been taken to the orphanage you would have fought tooth and nail to get her back. What happened wasn't your fault and even so you've made it up for it with everything you've done for her." Robbie's words were reassuring and cheered Sportacus up.

The clock chimed four and it startled the two men. They'd been talking for some time and Sportacus blushed when he realised he'd actually be late for once. He had yet to collect Robyn and saying goodbye to Robbie went to do what he should have done half an hour before. Robbie suggested that Sportacus join them for dinner and he accepted.

Sportacus pedalled to Crazytown as fast as he could but still ended up being late. A very disgruntled and wet Robyn entered the airship. It had been raining outside and Robyn had been stuck out in it waiting for her usually punctual uncle to turn up.

Rolling her eyes Robyn entered the bathroom and took a shower. She'd have words with Sportacus later.


	9. Wedding plans

The inhabitants of Lazytown gathered in a crowd by the stage. They'd been called to hear an announcement by the mayor and only five people knew what it was to be. Ch**é and Greta had also joined the crowd. There was an air of excitement as the Mayor cleared his throat.**

**"Yesterday evening I received some very good news. Young Robyn has been given the opportunity to assist and supervise in the creation of a garden at the Outreach Clinic." The Mayor announced excitedly.**

**The crowd applauded and Kit lifted Robyn up onto the stage.**

**"Thanks everyone. Even though the designs we came up with have yet to be approved the work is set to start next week. As far as we know it's going to take up to two months if not more to complete the project." Robyn explained. **

**Trixie spoke up and asked, "What will it look like when it's done?"**

**"I can't be sure yet. The designers will call me tomorrow to let me know what they think of what I came up with and if all is considered well then it should hopefully look like my design. What that design will be is for me to know and you to find out." Robyn replied.**

**Once everyone had asked any questions they wanted to ask or passed on any congratulations the crowd split up. They were all proud of Robyn and looked forward to seeing her garden. They all hoped that Robyn's designs would be approved; the girl had a good eye for creativity and had designed her own garden well. **

**With the upcoming tournament just a day away now there was a great deal of excitement throughout the town. Knowledge of the events was a well kept secret and no matter how many times people asked any of the planning committee what they were nothing was said. Even the Mayor managed to keep his mouth shut when he'd been asked. He'd been targeted the most as everyone knew his weakness with keeping secrets but he had told whoever asked him what the other committee members said, 'no comment'.**

**Kit had been bugging Robbie to let him into the secret constantly but Robbie had resisted also. No one was going to be told until the day. The tournament was to start officially at eleven in the morning and knowledge of the events would be kept under wraps until then. Kit had tried asking Robyn but she'd claimed she was as clueless as he was; she'd not been let into it either. Greta's answer had been the same as Robyn's. **

**Pixel had been working on Stephanie to tell him what the events were and he was having about as much luck as Kit. **

**Aside from trying to glean information of the events from Stephanie Pixel had other things to think about; he and Stephanie had a wedding to plan. They'd made provisional plans but hadn't set anything in stone. Pixel didn't really want to have to choose a best man, there were too many candidates. Tradition demanded that there had to be a best man and Pixel had desperately wanted the rule to be changed to four. He couldn't choose between Ziggy, Stingy, Sportacus and Kit. It seemed unfair that Stephanie could have as many brides' maids as she wanted and he could only have one best man. He had to choose someone before the wedding as there was a stag night to be planned. Something at the back of his mind told him that Kit would probably be the best at planning a stag night; he might even be too good. **

**Had things worked in an ideal way Stephanie and Pixel would have gotten married before Stephanie got pregnant but as fate would have it their plan didn't work out. With Stephanie four months gone already they didn't have long. **

"You're thinking about the wedding aren't you?" Stephanie's voice broke into Pixel's thoughts.

He nodded.

"Good." Stephanie began. "I took the liberty of making a few phone calls and if we want to set a date we have to wait at least a year."

Pixel was astounded, "a year?" he exclaimed.

"Yep. That's no good so I got to thinking of something else. Instead of having our wedding in a chapel, church or register office why don't we get married in Robyn's garden?"

Pixel frowned, "which one? She's going to have two soon."

"The one she has here, silly. We can hire a chaplain and we'd only have to wait three weeks. It works out a lot cheaper as well."

"You are a genius. Have you asked Robyn yet?"

Stephanie shook her head, "I wanted to run the idea past you first. I'll ask Robyn first thing in the morning. I'm sure she'll say yes."

"There's no reason why she should say no. If we get the go ahead I'll have to get my skates on with choosing a best man."

"You've not chosen one yet have you?"

Shaking his head Pixel replied, "No. I was thinking along the lines of asking Kit. He'd be the best to sort out a stag night. Knowing Kit's sense of humour and how mischievous he is we'll probably have to have it at least a fortnight before the wedding. I keep having notions that he'd set me adrift at sea in a dinghy, naked."

Stephanie laughed at the mental image. Kit was the most risky candidate though she was sure that Robyn could keep him in line. She also had to choose a chief brides' maid and flower girl. Bessie would be the maid of honour and if her parents couldn't make it her uncle would stand in as father of the bride.

In attempt to make their provisional plans more solid now that they had more options open to them Pixel suggested that they ask Robyn sooner rather than later about using her garden for their wedding. Stephanie agreed reasoning that tomorrow would be too hectic as it was the day of the tournament. They didn't have far to go either as Kit and Robyn lived just next door.

Stephanie raised her hand to knock on the door when Kit opened it with his usual little boy smile. Motioning for Pixel and Stephanie to enter Kit stepped aside and they came in. Looking around Stephanie noticed that the dining table had been taken out of the kitchen and placed in the middle of the living room floor.

"What's going on?" She asked.

Robbie sauntered in from the kitchen with some plates, "we're doing the table cloth trick."

"Cool!" Pixel exclaimed. "Can I try?"

Kit nodded and after placing the plates on the table gestured for Pixel to have a go. Pixel stepped up and grabbed the tablecloth in both hands. Closing his eyes he whipped the table cloth away and…..

_CRASH!_

All of the plates fell of the table and onto the floor. Robbie, Stephanie, Robyn and Pixel looked horrified at that the mass of shattered plates on the floor.

"Uh oh." Pixel winced, "sorry. I've broken your plates."

Kit chuckled, "they're not our plates."

Robbie and Robyn looked thunderstruck. Robbie shook his head with a look of terror on his face.

Robyn looked just as worried, "you didn't"

Kit smiled, "do you think I'd be stupid enough to use my own plates?"

"Whose are they then?" Pixel was becoming more and more apprehensive by the second.

"Bessie's." Kit replied nonchalantly.

Stephanie opened her eyes and mouth wide. "How could you?" she asked Kit.

Kit laughed. "I'm not the one that broke them."

Pixel's heart skipped a beat and he almost fainted when someone knocked on the front door.


	10. Mission impossible

The person on the other side of the door knocked again. It was louder this time and demanded attention. With an unbelievable casualness Kit opened the door.

"Parcel for a Sergei Kitchlovsky. Is he in?" A courier asked holding a box.

"That's me. Where do I sign?" Kit replied. The courier handed him a clipboard and told him to find his name. Kit found it and handed back the clipboard. Picking up the parcel the courier handed it to Kit and took his leave.

When Kit turned back into the house he saw that everyone except Robbie and Robyn were looking at him strangely.

"Who's Sergei Kitchlovsky?" Stephanie asked stumbling a little on the surname.

Kit smiled, "me. That's my real name. I just prefer Kit so that's the one I use. You could say the other one acts as my business name."

Pixel nodded, "It sounds Russian."

"You're right on the money there. My parents were Russian; I was born in this country so I don't have any noticeable accent. If you're wondering why I adopted the name Kit it's because Mr Snail would have found me. Kids never escaped him, if he wanted you he'd find you. If he asked around for a Sergei Kitchlovsky I'd have been picked up almost straight away. As I had no accent and no one knew me I thought on my feet and changed my name." Kit explained.

This little insight into Kit's past was rather interesting. Kit very rarely spoke of his past or his family. He needed no reasons, everyone knew well enough how hard it had to have been for him and he didn't need to show off his battle scars. All people knew of Kit was what they could glean from his every day activities and what he'd let slip now and then.

Pixel made the mistake of looking at the mess of broken plates on the floor and his heart started pounding again.

"Don't panic. Everything is going to be fine." Kit reasoned seeing Pixel's composure flake again.

"How is everything going to be fine? When Bessie finds out what happened to her plates she'll kill me! I don't call that fine!" Pixel snapped annoyed at Kit's apparently unconcerned approach to the matter.

Kit took Pixel's hostility in his stride and patted the top of the parcel he held in his hands.

At everyone's puzzled look Kit said, "My insurance policy. I always have a contingency plan. I am the main event people; I can turn wine into water and lead in to gold. Trust me."

"Alchemy isn't going to save my neck. What's in that parcel anyway?" Pixel snapped again.

"Plates. The exact copies of Bessie's apart from the fact that these are in one piece. All I need to do is put these in her cupboard and everything will be fine."

"She doesn't know you borrowed them?" Stephanie asked rather disconcerted by Kit's audacity. He knew what Bessie was capable of when annoyed.

"Nope. She's at the town hall with the Mayor until five in the afternoon. It's now three thirty. I have an hour and a half to get in and out. Easy." Kit smiled.

Robbie shook his head, "where did you get the money from? They must have cost a lot."

"I'll go over that later. Right now I have some plates to return. First of all, it's disguise time!" Kit ran up the stairs.

"Where have I heard that before?" Robbie asked to all and none stroking his chin.

Stephanie and Pixel smiled and shook their heads. Only they got the joke.

Five minutes later Kit came down the stairs in his disguise. The disguise consisted of something that assassins or marines would wear: a black woolly hat, black jumper, black trousers and shoes. Kit also had black streaks along his face as a form of camouflage. It was in no way inconspicuous but no one said anything, they were too interested in how Kit would fair completing his mission.

As if he were a covert spy Kit opened the front door slightly and taking up a pair of binoculars surveyed the area. He had to go round the town square to get to the Mayor's house and it would be an impossible task to accomplish without being seen. After finishing his surveillance of the area Kit put away the binoculars and gathered the parcel in his arms. Instead of walking with it as everyone expected Kit got on his stomach and crawled out of the house still holding the parcel in his arms.

Kit's audience shook their heads rolling their eyes. He'd never make it. There was no way he could do it without getting spotted. It seemed that there were no limits to what Kit would do.

Ché was talking in the square with Sportacus when he saw Kit in his commando outfit crawling across the ground. Without saying anything Ché pointed at Kit and Sportacus looked over.

"What's he doing now?" Sportacus asked his eyes fixed on Kit.

Hearing what Sportacus said Kit looked up and placing the parcel on the ground placed a finger to his lips. Once this was done Kit picked the parcel up again and carried on crawling.

Sportacus looked at Ché and shrugged. Kit was obviously up to something and he wanted to know what. He had to decide whether confronting Kit straight away or doing it later was best. Thinking more about it Sportacus decided to let this one slide, he'd ask Kit later. Watching this new stunt was much more interesting than interrupting it. Kit was outdoing himself this time.

It took Kit ten minutes to get to the Mayor's house and looking round he climbed in through the kitchen window. He crawled under the table and round the kitchen counter. Putting the parcel on the ground again Kit stuck his head over the counter and seeing the coast was clear ducked down to get the parcel. Undoing the parcel Kit arranged the plates how Bessie kept them. The first part of his mission was complete and now he had to get out and back home.

When Kit heard the front door open he knew he was in serious trouble. He heard the Mayor's and Bessie's voices and winced. He pressed himself against the counter and was glad he'd had the good sense to crouch back down after putting the plates away. Bessie's footsteps came comfortably close to his position yet he stood his ground. Sweat beaded on his forehead when Bessie suggested that she and the Mayor have a late lunch.

Fate smiled on Kit when the Mayor declined and reminded Bessie that they had business to attend to in the bedroom which why they'd come home. Bessie agreed to this suggestion and their footsteps retreated down the hallway.

Kit exhaled deeply and ran a hand over his forehead. Without a moment's hesitation he got up and jumped out of the kitchen window. He ran back to his house at top speed and shut the door behind him.

Stephanie, Pixel, Robyn, Robbie, Sportacus and Ché applauded when Kit came bounding into the house. He'd done it.

Pixel walked up to Kit and gave him a slap on the back, "You are crazy." He stated shaking his head.

"I know." Kit replied slapping Pixel on the back and smiling his little boy smile again.


	11. Tournament day

The day of the tournament had arrived. As soon as the clock struck eleven everyone rushed to the town square to hear what the first event was to be. An air of arrested anticipation rose from the crowd when the Mayor stepped up to the podium and turned on the microphone.

"Welcome to the Lazytown Tournament. For today we have chosen five events. Once each event is over the next event will be revealed. The first event is a tug of war. The first team to cross the red line loses. Everybody ready?"

When the crowd nodded the Mayor exclaimed, "Then let the tournament commence!"

The heroes picked up their end of the rope while the normals picked up theirs. Ché was the anchor for the hero's side whilst Ziggy, who was slightly bigger than all the other normals, was chosen for the anchor on the normal's side.

Greta stepped up and instructed both teams to take the strain. When this was done Greta held up her hand and double checked that the red ribbon was lined up with the red line. Everything checked out and both teams declared they were ready Greta shouted, "heave!"

A furious test of strength ensued. The normals pulled with all their might and the hero's pulled back just as hard. Using their advantage of strength and size combined Ché and Sportacus stopped giving the normals and easy time and started really putting in some effort. The normals struggled to stay on their feet when the heroes gave an almighty tug on the rope and their feet slid forward. Trixie's feet narrowly missed crossing the line and with a renewed vigour she ordered the others on her team to pull as hard as they could. Taking up whatever slack they'd let slip the normals pulled back with more force than they thought possible. Finding himself able to move backwards Ziggy kept shouting 'heave' prompting his team to pull whenever he shouted the word. Feeling the strain from the other team's amazing strength the heroes began to lose ground. Sportacus' feet came dangerously close to the line as Trixie's had done and Sportacus called to Ché to 'pull the lead out'. Ché shouted back that he was trying but he couldn't regain the ground they'd lost. His feet were beginning to slip too.

Smelling victory the normals redoubled their efforts and pulled harder than ever before. Ché had managed to dig his heels in and had begun to pull back. The normals fought to keep their gathered ground and dug their heels in. Not intending to be defeated the heroes summoned all the strength they had left to muster and heaved. They were beginning to claw back their early lead when….

The rope snapped.

Both teams were thrown back and landed in piles on the ground. Greta went to check on the heroes and Robyn went to check on the normals. Thankfully everyone checked out fine. The only things that had gotten hurt were their bottoms and their prides. After a minute of deliberation the Mayor, Bessie, Robbie and Stephanie concluded that as the rope snapped no one had one the event. It was null and void.

The next event was the discus throw. Trixie nominated herself for the normal team and Sportacus nominated himself for the heroes. Ché was too busy sulking to offer to participate. Sportacus, being the gentleman, let Trixie throw first. She did so and threw the discus five hundred metres. Sportacus threw his discus and it landed a whopping eight hundred metres away beating Trixie's throw by three hundred metres. The heroes had won round two.

With the score at one to the heroes and nil to the normals the third event was about to begin. After a rethink by the planning committee the sack race and relay race had been combined to form a relay sack race. The idea of this was that three members of the normals team would stand at one end of a pre-drawn race track and the other two members with the addition of Robyn would stand at the other. Sportacus stood on one end of the track and Ché stood at the other. One member from each team had to jump in their sack to the other end of the track and tag their team mate who would jump back and so on. Each team member had their own sack to make things go smoother. Quite surprisingly a sack had also been found to fit Ché. To beat the normals at this event the heroes had to complete ten relays backwards and forwards before the normals team members had all swapped sides.

Greta stood in the middle of the track with a starting pistol. Making sure that each team was ready she fired the pistol into the air and ran to the side lines.

The first relay was Stingy versus Ché. Ché took an early lead but stumbled, this was enough for Stingy to gain the advantage and he tagged Pixel. Pixel had a five second head start on Sportacus and jumped with all his might. Sportacus soon caught up however and was neck and neck with Pixel when he tagged Ziggy. Because there was no one for Sportacus to tag he had to do another relay back to tag Ché. Sportacus built up a good lead against Ziggy and tagged Ché before Ziggy was even three quarters down the track. Ziggy's team mates urged him on and he tagged Trixie just as Ché had picked himself up after falling flat on his face. Trixie powered down the track and tagged Robyn just before Ché could reach the end and turn himself around. With expert finesse Robyn jumped towards the end to tag Kit, the normals were in the lead by a nose when Kit started his relay. Sportacus bounded down the track chasing Kit's heels and almost overtook when the unthinkable happened, he fell over. Getting up quickly Sportacus tried to catch up with Kit and did so just after Kit had crossed the finishing line. The normals had won.

With three events down and the score tied a recess was called. It was lunchtime and after the sack race all of the contestants were rather tired. Ché could be heard grumbling in the background about his nose which had started to bleed after his fall. The sack race had been incredibly close but yet the heroes felt the sting of defeat. Sportacus had been forbidden from flipping as it would have been cheating, he was sure that he would have won had he been allowed to.

Everyone finished their lunch quickly eager for the final two events. When arm wrestling was announced Kit nominated himself thinking he'd be against Sportacus. His confidence soon faltered when Ché stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. Kit's cockiness soon kicked in though and he smiled wickedly at Ché, he wasn't going to lose without a fight.

Both men lay on their stomachs with their elbows resting on the ground. Kit clasped Ché's left hand with his right and prepared for the command to start. When the Mayor was sure that both men were prepared he gave them the go ahead. The best two out of two wrestles would win the game. Ché effortlessly defeated Kit on the first wrestle and almost defeated Kit on the second when someone shouted:

"Ché! Your airship is moving!"

Ché looked up and could see his airship flying off. Swearing he ripped his hand from Kit's and ran off to bring it back. As Ché had forfeited the wrestle it was declared that Kit had won by default. The scores were now tied.

Robyn slanted a sideways glance at Greta when the woman resumed her seat beside her.

"You sabotaged that round didn't you?" Robyn whispered knowing where Greta had disappeared to instead of going to the toilet like she'd said.

Greta held her hands up, "I couldn't let that poor boy have his arm ripped off. After all, the air brakes on these older airships can come off by themselves. Ché knows that."

Robyn smiled, "our little secret then."

This agreed the two women chuckled. No one was any the wiser as to where Greta had gone and no questions were asked.

With four out of five events down it was now time for the well awaited grand final.


	12. Capture the flag

The two teams prepared for a gruelling game of Capture the Flag. This was to be the decider of the tournament. There were to be two games of capture the flag each lasting ten minutes. In between games there would be a five minute recess for rest and strategising to enable rethinking of positions etc. Each team had a flag which had been placed at opposite ends of the sports field. The hero's flag was yellow and the normal's flag was red. Whilst protecting their own flag from attack each team had to try to steal the other team's flag. Ché was literally the biggest obstacle with his height and massive strength. For a giant the man also moved rather swiftly which was worrying. Sportacus was also an obstacle but was nowhere near as dangerous as Ché.

Before the game started each team had five minutes to devise a strategy. As there were only two heroes their job was easy, one person to guard the flag the other to steal the opponent's. Ché was to be the guard and Sportacus the front runner. If Ché needed back up however, which was unlikely, it was Sportacus' job to provide it.

Kit, as team leader, elected Stingy and Pixel to defend the flag making a special point to tell Stingy that the flag was his. Ziggy was a runner and would help wherever needed or called. Trixie was to try to block Sportacus and get up his nose as extra help to the flag protectors and Kit was to take Ché. If Kit needed help Trixie had to temporarily forget Sportacus and run over.

"Okay guys we know what we're doing. This game is going to be no holds barred. People might get hurt but don't worry. Try your best and if you need to get down and dirty." Kit motivated the team, "and Trixie, don't be afraid to go for the eyes." Kit said in a comical voice while holding his hands like claws.

Trixie giggled and rolled her eyes. She wasn't going to hurt Sportacus, at least not too much if he got in the way.

As a special precaution Doctor Cole had been asked to oversee the game. It was likely that there could be some nasty injuries and even though Greta and Robyn were providing first aid he gave extra assurance.

When both teams announced they were ready and got into position the Mayor wished everyone good luck and the game commenced.

Trixie shot right in with putting Sportacus off which allowed enough time for Kit to get by him and make for the flag. Using the blocking skills she'd learnt in basketball Trixie really got up Sportacus' nose and as much as he tried he couldn't get past her.

Ché was already waiting for Kit when he approached and used his massive form to get in the way. He followed every single one of Kit's movements and blocked him at every attempt. Seeing that he was getting nowhere Kit called Trixie to get her to give him a hand, Ché couldn't possibly keep an eye on two people.

Sportacus seized his chance when Trixie left to help Kit but was stopped short by Stingy who was getting up his nose worse than Trixie.

"_IT'S MIIIIINE!_" Stingy bellowed when Sportacus came close.

With Stingy's incomparable defence Sportacus was having trouble getting anywhere near the flag. Whenever he did manage to get close enough to make a grab for the flag Stingy knocked his arms away. In case Sportacus changed tack and decided to try an aerial assault on the flag Pixel guarded the rear flank. Ziggy had been placed in defending the flag for the time being as well and it was effectively surrounded.

Trixie and Kit's relentless attack on the hero's side of the field was starting to wear down Ché. He knew that if he made to grab one of them the other would get round him and steal the flag. From what Ché could see Sportacus was having just as much trouble on his side. There were still two minutes left of this round and it looked like it was going to be a stalemate. All Ché could do for those two minutes was hope that Ziggy wouldn't be called to help in the attack on his flag.

Ché's worst fear came true.

Sportacus tried to block Ziggy as the candy enthusiast ran to help his friends but he was too slow. Stingy was still providing a vicious onslaught and had effectually diverted Sportacus' concentration.

Before the normal team could seize the hero's flag the whistle blew to signal the end of the first game. Ché had managed to hold out long enough for that. The game was declared a stale mate as neither flag had been stolen let alone touched.

Collapsing on the ground in a heap next to Sportacus Ché breathed deeply. "I hate to say it amigo but I am getting old. I think we need to rethink a little."

Sportacus nodded. "What do you suggest we do?"

Ché sat up and motioned for Sportacus to sit closer. He whispered his plan in Sportacus' ear.

The normal team broke their huddle. They'd decided that Kit, Trixie and Ziggy should head straight the flag instead of blocking the others. Stingy protected the flag like a tiger and he and Pixel were enough. With one minute left to go before the whistle sounded to start the next game the normals got themselves into position.

Once both teams declared they were ready the whistle blew.

Kit, Trixie and Ziggy charged the opposition. At first they thought it was Sportacus that was going to be front runner but they were wrong. Ché came out and met their charge with one of his own. Fearlessly the three normals stood their ground despite shouts from their team mates protecting the flag and the crowd as well. Breaking off just in time to escape Ché's arms Trixie and Ziggy ran round Ché and made for the flag.

A split second before he was pounded into the ground by Ché's feet Kit did a forward tumble between Ché's legs. This move caught the giant off guard and he couldn't turn around fast enough to stop him.

Sportacus was struggling to hold his position. It was three against one and he didn't have the advantage of size like Ché did. He refused to call Ché back; they had to win this and couldn't do so if no one was attacking the other team's flag. With all his skill and quick reflexes he carried on blocking the three invaders.

Ché was having a difficult time getting to the normal's flag. Stingy faced him off and wouldn't back down. Pixel had to help him as Ché's arms were considerably longer than Sportacus' and he could reach easier.

It was no use. As much as he tried Sportacus couldn't continue putting up the defence he had done. Desperately he called Ché back, the normals were coming closer and closer to breaking through.

With the same speed that he had charged the normals Ché ran back to Sportacus. He never made it however. He tripped over his own foot and went flying, tumbling and rolling across the ground as fast as he was running. Ché didn't stop until he'd careered into the refreshments table and Robyn.

Doctor Cole rushed over straight away with his doctor's bag. Everyone left the game and rushed over also. With a great deal of difficulty Ché was shifted and while Greta attended to her unconscious husband the Doctor assessed Robyn. She was breathing but she wasn't moving. She'd taken the full force of Ché tumble plus his massive weight.

There was an air of great concern as the Doctor tried to rouse Robyn but couldn't succeed. He was about to radio in for an air ambulance when a miracle happened; Robyn suddenly shot straight up and looked about her.

Seeing what she wanted Robyn smiled and picked up the plate of cake she'd been meaning to get before Ché crashed into her. Completely oblivious to everyone around her Robyn stood up and walked off.

For a moment no one could move. They all looked at each other extremely confused. One minute Robyn was seemingly unconscious and the next she was sitting on a bench eating cake. Doctor Cole was certainly speechless for one; he'd never seen anything like it.

Coming back to himself Kit burst out laughing. When everyone turned to him with a puzzled look on their faces he pointed at Robbie and said, "She's worse than you for cake! Next time she gets knocked out I'll wave a slice of cake under her nose, that'd get her up."

Everyone laughed at this. Robyn was a worse offender than Robbie when it came to cake and there nothing that would put her off getting it. Even being knocked out didn't stop her.

When Robyn had finished her cake Doctor Cole checked her over and declared that apart from a few scrapes here and there Robyn was fine. Ché woke up quickly after being knocked out also and was severely reprimanded by Greta for being so clumsy. She also threatened that if Ché pulled a stunt like that again she'd break both his legs.

The tournament had come to an end and the scores were being tallied. It was about to be announced that the day had been a draw when Kit produced the hero's flag from behind his back. He'd grabbed it just before Ché had rocketed into Robyn and so the normal's won the game.

"I now declare that with a last minute victory that the normals have won the tournament!" The Mayor announced.

A cheer rose from the crowd and all of the normal team members congratulated each other. Turning to the heroes the normals then started to sing Queen's 'we are the champions'.

All in all it had been a great day. Each team had done their best and as insurmountable as the odds were against the normals they'd pulled through to win the day.

No one had any energy to celebrate so both teams were allowed to go home and rest. The Mayor had suggested doing the same thing next year on a specific day but the crowd groaned.

Today had been enough for a lifetime.


	13. Breakfast

It was the morning after the day before and after a good night's sleep Kit was ready and raring to go. He whistled as he walked down the stairs and entered the kitchen for breakfast. Robbie and Robyn were already up and breakfasting and smiled when they saw the late arrival. Kit gave Robyn a kiss on the cheek and Robbie chuckled when he got one too. Going to the cupboard Kit grabbed a bowl and filled it with cereal. When he turned he almost dropped the bowl he was holding when he saw what Robbie was eating.

"Cereal! You? Blimey!" Kit exclaimed not believing his eyes.

Robbie looked down at the contents of his bowl and pulled a face, "yes I know. I thought I'd try something new for a change and see what all the fuss about this stuff was about. I can say I'm not impressed."

Kit took a seat at the table and watched as Robbie reluctantly put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth. The faces Robbie was pulling were rather humorous, they reminded him of the faces kids pull when they have to eat cabbage or Brussels sprouts.

Someone knocked on the door and all three occupants bid the visitor enter. The door opened and Sportacus walked in amused at the lack of service. He was well used to the fact that no one ever answered the door at meal times; you had to let yourself in.

"Hey guys. How is everyone today?" Sportacus asked walking into the kitchen.

Kit looked up from watching Robbie attempting to get himself to eat his cereal and smiled at Sportacus, "I think everyone is pretty good. I'm not sure how long that will last though."

"How do you mean?" There was a small tinge of concern in Sportacus' voice.

"Just take a look at what Robbie's eating."

Sportacus walked over to the table and almost fell over with shock at the sight at what Robbie was eating. He found it harder to believe that Robbie was eating cereal than Kit. As if trying to detect some sign of illness in Robbie Sportacus placed his hand on Robbie's forehead. After thirty seconds he drew his hand away, Robbie's forehead felt normal.

Shaking his head Sportacus shrugged. "Why cereal? What happened to cake?"

"That blasted Doctor Cole happened to cake. He's put me on some kind of meal chart in an attempt to improve my diet. It doesn't need improving." Robbie snarled he hated Doctors and their meddling ways.

"He's trying to help you, daddy. There's no harm in doing what he says until you're completely well again. Give this new diet a try for a few weeks and see how you feel afterwards." Robyn interjected cooling Robbie's ire.

Kit nodded, "Robyn's right. He never said you couldn't eat cake, he said it was ok as a dessert. And that means dessert."

Robbie couldn't argue anymore. They were right after all; it wasn't going to be for long.

Looking up at Sportacus Robbie asked, "So how are you?"

Sportacus smiled, "same as always. How's Robyn after getting squished yesterday?"

"I'm still a bit bruised. The scrapes and scratches are fine. I guess I was lucky." Robyn replied. "How's Ché?"

Sportacus smirked, "Greta is still telling him off after yesterday. She's lectured him about being more careful and remembering that you're a little more delicate than his sons. When Greta finally leaves him alone I should think Ché will be pretty deaf for a while."

Kit chuckled, "she doesn't give him a hard time does she?"

"It's a good thing she does. Robyn could have been killed." There was a noticeable tremor in Robbie's voice when he spoke.

"Greta knows that which is why she's asked you to not get involved. As much as what happened was an accident it was a silly stunt to pull. Ché forgets his size and strength sometimes." Sportacus explained.

"Forgets?" Robbie protested, "All he has to do is look down. We must be like ants to him!"

Robyn stood up her sky blue eyes flashing with anger, "look, I'm fine. It's not as if Ché doesn't feel sorry for what he's done. It was an accident and that's all. Can we just forget this now?"

There was silence.

Before anything more could be said there was a knock at the door. The visitor was called in.

"I can't." A muffled yet familiar voice said from the other side of the door.

As she was standing up already Robyn walked into the living room and opened the front door. On the other side of it was Ché. Looking back into the kitchen Robyn stepped outside and shut the door behind her.

Robyn looked up at Ché and smiled, "hola señor Ché"

Ché looked a little surprised when Robyn greeted him in his native tongue. He hadn't realised she knew Spanish but it was very welcome. Smiling at Robyn's excellent accent and pronunciation he replied, "Hola pequeña Robyn. Are you well today?"

"Quite well thank you. I hear that Greta has been telling you off."

Ché grimaced, "she has. Tell me pequeña Robyn, and my apologies for changing the subject abruptly, but where did you learn Spanish?"

"Sportacus taught me a few little words after I learnt of you and wanted to know where you came from. How do you think I did?"

"I was very impressed. You've got the accent and pronunciation just right. Your uncle is terrible. His accent murders the words he speaks."

Robyn laughed, "They are two very strong accents and two very different languages. What does 'pequeña' mean?"

"Little." Ché chuckled and then sobering he looked at Robyn with sincerity in his eyes, "I'm extremely sorry for yesterday. I was stupid and clumsy. You could have been seriously hurt. You don't have a twenty eight stone or three hundred and ninety two pound man landing on you every day."

"No I don't. There's no harm done though."

Ché nodded, "I would have expected there to have been some. If it's alright with you pequeña Robyn would you be able to fetch your father for me? I should apologise to him also."

With a nod Robyn re-entered the house and after a few minutes and a lot of grumbling Robbie came out.

After about fifteen minutes of arguing, scolding, snapping and apologising Robbie and Ché were laughing. They'd spoken in honesty and had found that they had some things in common. Robbie had forgiven Ché for landing on Robyn and had formed a new friend in the process.

Robbie was about to invite Ché round for lunch when Kit whizzed out of the house on his unicycle closely followed on foot by Robyn.

"What did I say about unicycling in the house?" Robbie called after him.

"That's easy; you didn't say anything at all!" Kit laughed.

Ché and Robbie looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Kids." They both said simultaneously before laughing.


	14. Crazy people and Cardinal hats

Kit had drawn a small audience when he unicycled around the sports field. Everyone knew he could unicycle but had never seen him do it before. Sportacus had joined the group also and deciding to test Kit's skill called for some apples from the airship and tossed them to Kit. With expert skill Kit juggled the apples whilst still riding his unicycle and drew applause. Kit's performance soon came to an end when his concentration was affected by a familiar man riding a motor bike into town with a strange hat on his head. With his concentration gone Kit fell off the unicycle.

Doctor Cole had seen Kit fall from his unicycle and dismounting his motor bike ran over to see if everything was ok. When he arrived at the scene he realised he needn't have rushed over, Kit was laughing hysterically. Everyone turned to look at the doctor and knew what the cause of Kit's laughter was. They struggled to contain laughter of their own.

"I'm sure you find this funny but I can assure you it's not. This stupid Cardinal's hat is super glued to my head." Doctor Cole snapped.

Stephanie swallowed her laughter and asked, "What happened? Why is it super glued?"

"I was doing rounds at the Crazytown safe house. They have their own doctors but I had to stand in and inspect the medium security patients. In the social room I was ambushed. They seemed to think I was Cardinal Bouchet, whoever he is, and that I'd lost my hat. That's what happened and why I have a cardinal's hat super glued to my head."

"That's terrible." Sportacus sympathised still battling his laughter.

Doctor Cole shook his head, "its better than the last time I got ambushed there. The last time they thought I was some kind of human sacrifice and tried to kill me by means of 'death of a thousand knives'. I was quite unharmed; they were using spoons to try to stab me."

"Aren't the medium security patients meant to be supervised?" Bessie asked.

"Yes they are. The man that took over from Doctor Cranium, god rest his soul, is a fool. He changed the rules and allowed medium security patients to roam free in their own area. Patrols run every half an hour now which is completely ridiculous. Things should very rightly be changed back to how they were under Doctor Cranium. If the stupid idiot that runs it now doesn't improve things and budget properly they're going to close the place down." Doctor Cole explained.

This little bit of information halted everyone's laughter. They all knew that if the Crazytown safe house got closed down it would mean that all of the patients would be released back into society. This included the maximum security patients and any number of them could make their way to Lazytown.

Seeing the worry he'd caused Doctor Cole put on his best reassuring face, "Procedures are being put into place to prevent it from happening. The board of directors at the Greentown hospital are meeting to discuss what is to happen. An injunction may be pushed through to prevent closing the place down and the hospital will take full control of the safe house. Doctor Hold who took over from Doctor Cranium will be fired and investigated."

Doctor Cole's attempt at reassurance worked and everyone calmed. There was still an edge of worry for some as it seemed that of late the Greentown hospital were taking on too many things at once.

Remembering what he'd come for Doctor Cole looked at Kit to assess this possible patient before heading over to see Robbie. After asking a few questions and giving Kit a cursory check over the Doctor was satisfied that the young man was fine. He then got up and walked to Robbie's house.

It wasn't long before Doctor Cole came running out of the house looking extremely harassed. Without a word to anyone the Doctor started up his motor bike and left. The Doctor's behaviour struck everyone as odd and no one was sure as to what could have prompted it.

Ché walked over to the crowd and it was obvious he'd been laughing.

"I take it that the Doctor has left?" Ché asked after giving Greta a quick hello kiss.

Robyn nodded. "What did daddy do to him?"

"Well, he laughed at him first of all and poor Doctor Cole couldn't get a word in. When Robbie managed to calm himself down Doctor Cole asked him how the new diet was going."

Kit smiled, "I bet he said not good."

"Something along those lines. It was only when he was told what he'd have for lunch that Robbie let him have it. I can't say I blame him, he's been given a specific menu for things he _has_ to eat." Ché winced remembering Robbie's reaction.

At first Robbie had seemed calm and collected but in a split second he'd turned that around and had had some very un-gentlemanly words with the good doctor. Quite remarkably Doctor Cole had stood up for himself which only made things worse. Before storming out of the house Doctor Cole threatened to hand over Robbie's care to Doctor Palley but quickly realised he couldn't. He was the only one that knew Robbie had come back from the dead.

Robyn went back home to check on her father and Kit resumed his unicycling. Sportacus was half tempted to go with Robyn but assured himself that she could deal with Robbie on her own.

Kit quickly got back to juggling and doing numerous tricks on his unicycle. Unlike all the other clowns in the world he'd never performed under a big top and it had been something of a dream for him to do something like it one day. Now he had Robyn his dream had been pushed to the background. She was much more important and even though Kit was rather skilled for someone who had taught himself most of his tricks he wasn't a professional.

Everyone was startled when Doctor Cole came racing back into town on his motor bike and stopped dead outside of Robbie's house. No one laughed at him this time and knew that something bad was going on.

Within a minute of Doctor Cole arriving at the house another on call doctor arrived and ran into the house. The arrival of the second doctor was all that Kit needed to run back to the house to see what was happening. He emerged from the house thirty seconds later pulling Robyn out with him. She was struggling against him and was crying.

Concerned, everyone ran over to see what they could do. If Robyn was fine then it meant that the doctors were there to help Robbie.

Kit eventually managed to calm Robyn and took her off somewhere more quiet.

No one knew what to do or what had happened. It was only when the second doctor retuned that they couldget anexplanation. It wasn't long before the second doctor came out and looked at the small crowd gathered outside.

It was Doctor Palley.

"Robbie will be fine. He hyperventilated very badly as a result of his argument with Doctor Cole. Itlooked much worse than it wasand he'll be out of bed tomorrow. No one needs to worry," Doctor Palley explained.

Everyone nodded understanding what they'd been told. They all felt relieved. Things could have been much worse.


	15. Scars

Three days had passed since the incident and Robbie was getting himself dressed. After putting on his underwear he'd snuck out of his room to grab some clothes off of the radiator in the hall. He didn't notice that someone was watching him as he hurriedly walked back into his room. He was about to put on his shirt when an all too familiar hand touched his back.

Robyn stood behind Robbie with her hand pressed against his back. The moment she touched the scars that spread all over his back a cold shiver ran down her spine and her heart skipped a beat.

Barbaric images confronted her. Voices, screams, threats and pain surrounded her. She could see Mr Snail, his belt raised and ready to land another blow on the poor naked boy in front of him. The belt came down and lashed the boy soundly over and over again. The buckle sliced through the boy's skin and the edges of the taut leather left angry red marks where they'd bitten into the skin also. With a devil's fury Mr Snail continued whipping the boy despite the agonised screams that ripped themselves from the boy's throat. Nothing would stop him.

In an instant the images changed and she was the boy. Pain flooded her body and she screamed and screamed but no mercy was afforded. The belt continued its bloody onslaught and wouldn't stop. Darkness was ever approaching but it wouldn't enfold her in its comforting blanket, every lash of the belt halted its progress.

Shouts could be heard in the room and the belt stopped. Strong arms lifted her from the ground and she was aware of being carried somewhere. With the belt having ceased its torture darkness came and she was lost in it.

Robbie couldn't turn around fast enough to catch Robyn before she fell to the ground. Shock and dread welled up within him and his head spun. Robyn wasn't unconscious for more than ten seconds and when she awoke her eyes were wild. She got up and tried to run from the room but Robbie grabbed her and pulled her back closing the door behind him. Robyn struggled against him and he had a hard time to hold her. Finally he pushed her none too gently against the wall and pinned her arms to it also. This quieted Robyn but there was a tinge of fear in her eyes as she looked deeply into her father's.

"What happened?" Robbie asked stilling his temper.

Robyn's words came out in a rush, "I saw something. When I touched your back I saw images, terrible images. I saw you. I saw how you got those scars. I felt it."

Robbie's eyes darkened and he looked away. Letting go of Robyn's arms he sat on the edge of his bed and put his head in his hands. Bitter tears flowed down his cheeks and fell onto his hands. He'd never wanted Robyn to know what had happened to him, he'd never wanted her to see his scars. Now she knew and she'd found out in the worst possible way.

Robyn slid down the wall onto the floor still shaken by what she'd seen, felt and heard. She couldn't find words to say nor could she bring herself to leave the room. She just sat and watched her father's anguish while she drowned in her own.

After what seemed like an eternity Robbie spoke his voice thick with pain, "You should never have found out. You should never have seen what happened or felt it. I tried so hard to protect you from the knowledge of what Mr Snail did to me but that's all undone now."

"How many more lies are there? How many more times do I have to learn the truth this way? If I could dash my head against a wall until this gift vanished I would. It's nothing but a curse."

Robyn's words made Robbie look at her quickly. He could see that his daughter was in a much worse state than himself and an ache unlike any other he'd felt before gripped his heart. Knowing that he was yet again walking on a knife's edge with Robyn he cautiously moved towards her. It struck him that one wrong move would destroy everything that he and Robyn had rebuilt after she had learnt of his wicked ways from Lily.

When Robbie had reached Robyn he knelt in front of her and lifted her chin with his finger. He looked deeply into her eyes and wanted so badly to take her pain away but couldn't. If he could turn back time and prevent Robyn from seeing the scars he would have. A million thoughts of what to say next flooded his mind but there was no reply to what Robyn had said.

Slowly he drew his arms around Robyn and hugged her hoping that it would afford some comfort. He was dismayed when Robyn just went stiff in his arms and wouldn't make a move to hug back. Drawing away Robbie made no effort to hide the fresh tears that welled up in his eyes and spilled out over his lashes. Getting up Robbie gathered up his clothes and walked across the hall to the bathroom to finish getting dressed.

Robyn stared off into space. The images she'd seen before played in monstrous technicolour in her mind. The sounds rang in her ears and the pain spread like a miasma through her body. Angry red marks broke out on her back and blood stained her lilac blouse. She made no movement or sound as she continued to stare blankly at a world beyond the capacity of normal eyes.

Sportacus felt strange. He felt like he could crawl out of his own skin. Something was happening somewhere but he didn't know what. He tried to work out where to look first. Finally choosing somewhere he made his way over to Robbie's house. It had been a lucky guess; the closer he got to the house the stronger his strange feeling grew. Not knowing what to expect on the other side of the door he slowly opened it and entered the house. Looking around downstairs he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary which led him to look upstairs. The house was painfully quiet and he feared the worst.

Reaching the top of the stairs Sportacus noticed his strange feeling growing to fever pitch, his attention was drawn to Robbie's room and with leaden legs he walked over. Cautiously he pushed open the half closed bedroom door and entered. It took him a few minutes to spot Robyn and when he did he gasped.

The girl was sat in much the same posture she'd been sitting in when Robbie had left the room. Her eyes hadn't left the spot they were fixed on. Her complexion had altered from its usual colour to a deathly pale. She trembled imperceptibly and her hands were clenched so tightly that her fingernails tore into her soft flesh. Red trickles of blood flowed from in between her tightly closed fingers.

Sportacus was startled when he heard a sound behind him. He turned to see Robbie whose eyes were set on Robyn. A look of horror crossed Robbie's face and tears coursed their way down his cheeks. Temporarily recovering himself he gently pushed past Sportacus who followed. He knelt down beside Robyn and looked helplessly at Sportacus.

"She knows what Mr Snail did to me. She found out. What can we do?" Robbie whispered desperately.

This revelation hit Sportacus like a train. He'd felt bad enough when he'd learnt of the origin of his scars and he knew Robyn must be feeling a thousand times worse. In answer to Robbie's question he didn't know what to do. Calling a doctor was the best thing but what would they say?

Sportacus' thoughts were interrupted when Robbie cried out. He looked up and saw Robbie had fresh blood on his hand. Looking over Robyn Sportacus noticed traces of red winding their way from Robyn's back and ever so gently he tilted her forward to get a better look.

Blood saturated the back of Robyn's blouse and had stained the wall where she'd been leaning against it. Without a second thought Sportacus ripped the blouse and almost cried out himself when he saw what it had concealed.

Kit came into the room and the sight that confronted him confused him. Sportacus looked up noticing his presence.

"Get a Doctor!" Sportacus shouted rousing Kit from his reverie.

Kit ran down the stairs as fast as he could and dialled the private number Doctor Cole had given him. The minute the doctor said he was on his way Kit hung up and ran back up the stairs.

Entering the room he saw Robyn having a seizure more terrible than any she'd had before.


	16. Making up

"I want you to tell me exactly how those marks got onto Robyn's back and I want the truth!" Doctor Cole bellowed storming into the relative's room and slamming the door hard behind him.

Sportacus, Kit and Robbie looked up in surprise. They'd never seen the Doctor like this and didn't know how to explain the marks to him.

Frustrated by the silence Doctor Cole broke it and in pretty much the same volume as before, "I'll tell you what I think happened. Those marks are consistent with those received when being beaten with a belt. Someone hit her and hit her hard. Who was it!"

Yet again there was no answer. Before Doctor Cole could have another whack at the three men a nurse opened the door and told him that Robyn had regained consciousness.

"I'll be back in a little while. Perhaps Robyn will be able to shed some light on the matter. No one is permitted to leave this room, do so and security will have you held in the Greentown police station before you can say go." Doctor Cole threatened and with a withering look at the three men left the room.

Robyn looked up when she heard someone enter the room. She was still groggy from her seizure but recognised Doctor Cole all the same. It was obvious from the Doctor's countenance that he had bad news.

"Hello Robyn," Doctor Cole began his voice back to its normal gentleness, "you're in hospital. The seizure you had was a **Status Epilepticus. It's very different from the ones you've had before and warrants admission. We'll be keeping you in overnight and reassess you in the morning for possible discharge. Do you understand me so far?"**

**It took a few seconds but Robyn nodded, she didn't feel up to talking.**

**Doctor Cole smiled weakly and when the smile faded he resumed speaking, "Can you remember what happened before the status epilepticus? If you can I need to know what happened. Anything you say to me will be treated in the strictest confidence. You can trust me."**

**Robbie's head was spinning. He was still trying to take in what had happened. In his mind he tried to piece it together but there was something missing. A deep and bitter fear filled him, a fear that he'd be accused of beating Robyn. The fact he wore a belt condemned him. It felt like there was a noose around his neck and with the pull of a lever it would tighten and strangle the life out of him.**

**Kit and Sportacus both knew that Robbie hadn't touched Robyn. She was much too precious to him for him to ever lay so much as an angry finger on her. Kit had been filled in on Mr Snail's past actions with Robbie in minor detail. As far as Kit knew Mr Snail had never done more than beat him, the truth was much more gruesome.**

**"You don't think this has something to do with her gift do you? It's the only half plausible thing I can think of. Maybe it goes much deeper than being able to see ghosts and things that have happened to those that have died. Maybe it reaches to living people too." Kit thought out loud.**

**Sportacus nodded, "I remember when the Shadows kidnapped me I felt odd, as if someone was in my head and looking out through my eyes. It seemed like they were reading my thoughts and making sure I was alright."**

**"It has to be that. That's how we found you. Robyn went all weird and described the warehouse, things she heard and saw. I know it sounds freaky but maybe the marks got on her back when she blanked out after seeing Robbie's scars and seeing what happened to him. As if she absorbed something from Robbie and they were it." Kit was glad that they were starting to get somewhere. **

**As good as it was being able to piece things together this new edge to Robyn's gift scared Kit. The revelation that Robyn could see how a person died by picking up traces of what happened to them was bad enough. The effects seemed to be that much more powerful and there was a very real possibility that Robyn could be scarred for life. It struck Kit that perhaps as time went on Robyn's gift grew stronger and other dimensions added themselves onto it. Doctor Cole knew of Robyn's gift and Kit was sure that he could convince him that no one had touched Robyn.**

**After fifteen more agonising minutes Doctor Cole entered the relative's room and seemed a lot calmer than he had been the last time they saw him. The Doctor looked at each man with confusion rather than his past accusation. It appeared that his attempts to get the truth from Robyn had been fruitless.**

**Before Doctor Cole could speak Kit jumped in and explained to the Doctor his theory on the marks. Strangely the doctor didn't argue or protest once Kit had finished speaking. In fact the doctor said nothing at all. He was musing over the information and began to pace the room. **

**"I must admit," Doctor Cole began after some few moments, "that as bizarre as all this sounds it makes sense. Being a neurosurgeon among other things I had to look into the more mysterious side of the brain. There have been cases where people have drawn such anxiety from people that marks appear on their body similar to their feelings or thoughts. You might call it psychological self harming. It runs along the same lines that spontaneous combustion can run on. An interesting facet of this is that when all of the anxiety and bad feelings have been eliminated that marks can disappear as quickly as they appeared. Hopefully this may be the case for Robyn."**

**The idea that Robyn had done all this to herself sickened Robbie. He'd been the root cause of the problem. Robbie's mind berated him, 'What kind of stupid excuse for a father are you? You scarred your daughter. What kind of man can make a person harm themselves in such a way? You left her to stew in her own juices and this is the result. I hope you're happy.' It struck Robbie that he'd done more harm to Robyn since revealing himself to her eleven months ago than Lily could have done in a lifetime. Perhaps he'd not changed at all. Could he fix the damage he'd done this time? No matter how hard it was Robbie would strive every to attempt to get things back on an even keel with Robyn. There was nothing more she could discover that she didn't know already which would make things easier. **

**Robbie looked up when he realised someone had called his name.**

**"There you are. I thought you'd drifted off somewhere. I forgot to say that Robyn wishes to see you. If you plan on hugging her be warned that her back is very painful at the moment." Doctor Cole said.**

**Nodding Robbie stiffly got up and followed Doctor Cole out of the room. He was extremely apprehensive about Robyn's reaction to him after the events of the morning. His fears were washed away by a wave of relief when he entered the room and Robyn smiled weakly at him. Doctor Cole left the two alone; they had a lot to talk about.**

**After talking on what had happened that morning Robyn and Robbie agreed to put everything that had happened between them over the last few months behind them to start afresh. It had been nigh on fifteen years since Robbie had been able to be a proper father to Robyn and things had changed too quickly for him to find his feet in the past. Things would change though, he would be a better father than he ever had been before and would make things work.**

**Gently Robbie stroked some loose threads of hair from his sleeping daughter's face. The girl stirred slightly but didn't wake. Kissing Robyn on the forehead Robbie left the room and made his way back to Sportacus and Kit.**

**Little did Robbie notice that he'd been watched when leaving Robyn's room and little did he notice the watched enter the room he'd just left. The stranger moved through the darkness silently as if he were made of it.**

**Feeling a pair of lips brush her own Robyn opened her eyes slowly. When she saw that the person was a stranger she made to raise an alarm but felt the sharp blade of a scalpel pressed against her neck.**

**"Scream and I'll slit your throat." A sing song voice whispered malevolently. **


End file.
